Mr.Crabs — Restaurant in Bashkia Sarandë

We were a family of six who decided to try MrCrabs because the kids had seen the famous Seafood Boil (SB) on TikTok and were dying to give it a go. The concept? A mountain of seafood dumped straight onto the table, and you dig in with your fingers like it’s a pirate feast. One portion for two people costs €80 – which, to put it mildly, is wildly expensive by Albanian standards… even in trendy little Ksamil. So we played it safe: one SB to share and a few other dishes on the side.

The kids absolutely loved the messy chaos of it – they’d never tried anything like it, so it turned into a unique (but budget-unfriendly) experience. The quality of the food? Well, let’s just say the sauce that comes with the SB was so strong and overpowering that it basically declared war on the seafood. No matter what you bit into – shrimp, crab, or calamari – it all tasted like… sauce. You have to wonder: why go to all the trouble (and cost) of serving fresh seafood, only to drown it in something that tastes like spicy glue?

The other dishes we tried were also on the pricey side, especially considering the small portions and very average quality. In the end, we paid nearly double what we did at other local places – and left not exactly full, just slightly confused and a bit poorer.

As for the service, it was… a spectacle. Some of the waiters were clearly sprinting their way into early retirement, while others stood frozen like extras in a reality show about “how not to help.” And then there were the managers – at least three of them – prowling around with crossed arms and furrowed brows, radiating that special kind of energy that says, “I’m not here to help. I’m here to supervise...

I will start on a positive note. The food tasted really good. The ambiance inside was nice and there was a genuine eagerness by everyone who didn’t have a reservation to get inside.

The negatives however are as followed: The portion sizes are too small. I live in the Netherlands and I ran away to escape that. I really don’t mind paying more but we got 7 shrimp from our grilled shrimp order..I mean come on, you are serving adults. The octopus portion for the price was decent but it was dry and the potatoes were cold. Finally my linguine with crab had red sauce from the can. I cook so I know what I’m saying.

The organization with reference to getting seated without a reservation was sooooo disorganized. We didn’t have a reservation however people who also didn’t have one kept going in front of us and getting seated even after we complained. The waiter who attended to us kept insisting they were in front of us and that wasn’t true.

There was no more crab when we came in. That was a major disappointment so don’t go there after 9 pm.

We were also handled by every single waiter at one point. Our order was forgotten and our original waiter came back to ask us again what we ordered. Even our drinks they forgot what we ordered smh! It was pretty busy but that isn’t an excuse. So we had to wait even longer than others who were seated after us!

We left still very hungry and not because we didn’t want to order more food but at that point after that experience...

My girlfriend and I went to mr crabs today and unfortunately ordered salmon carpaccio as a starter. It took ages to arrive and when it did I had a mouthful and thought “gosh that’s cold”. My girlfriend then said,” “my salmon is still physically frozen”. We sent the dish back and said we did not want it replaced, the waiter said that was fine and apologised. My main arrived of grilled sea bream (gilt head) and that was very overcooked and dry. We asked for the bill and the salmon was still on there and the restaurant refused to take it off the bill, saying “we can’t take it off the bill as that’s how we serve it in Albania” we asked to speak to a manager and were told that only his sister was in tonight who spoke no English so there was no point speaking to her (despite our waiter speaking perfect English there was no offer to translate to her). So nothing could be done. We ended up being forced to pay for the salmon we didn’t eat as there was no other option, even after offering to pay for 1/2 the salmon as a deescalation peace offering. I would 100% not recommend this restaurant due to the service we received and the substandard food we were given. It’s a fish restaurant and they can’t cook a simple grilled sea bass, or serve salmon carpaccio that isn’t physically still frozen… there are Plenty of really amazing places within 100m you could choose instead, we’ve been to a load since we have been here and this is the only place we have had problems...